Toileting Troubles

Poor Blake. We keep trying to work on his toilet training, but things keep coming along to interrupt. First, he came down with bronchitis. Then I took over the bathroom when I tiled it. Oh, and did I mention the bout of tummy troubles caused by (we later discovered) him drinking all of the juice boxes in our food storage?

So, even though we've been working on his toileting skills for almost two months, we haven't gotten too far. He pees on command, so much so that if he's really got to go and you tell him "Blakie, go pee" it starts dribbling down his legs. Poor kid. I try to tell him to go before that point though. He does usually stays dry for nap time, which is a bonus, but he still won't go number 2 or on his own. Oh well. He's still much easier then his sisters were. So far. Let's hope it stays that way.

How I Spent My Week off of School

A couple weeks ago, we took one of our scheduled breaks from homeschooling, and instead of relaxing, I went into overdrive.

I had discovered, to my chagrin, that my kids had flooded the bathroom one too many times. Luckily nothing was really damaged, but the vinyl floor tiles were pulling up and no longer protecting the places where the old linoleum no longer covered the particle board flooring underneath. Yup. Particle board. Oh, it had some sort of tarpaper like coating on top of it, but that was tearing away in places. So, something had to be done. And soon.

First I had to fix the small are that had been softened by the frequent flooding (no mold, luckily). Wood putty, sanding and sealer did the job. That was all done the week before in preparation for my "big job".

Yup. I tiled the bathroom floor over my week long break. Fun, huh? Well, actually, it kinda was.

Monday, I was pretty sick, so I spent it in bed preparing for the major work I knew I was getting myself into.

Tuesday I took easy and only tore apart the flooring, trim, and heater and washed everything down.

Wednesday is when it kicked into high gear. Seth helped me remove the toilet, then I set about preparing the floor for the backer board. I had to cut it to the right size (the boards are 3'x5') and maneuver them into place (not an easy task in a small room). Then, after dry fitting, I had to get back under them and smear the adhesive all over before laying them back down and screwing them in every eight inches.

Thursday, after taking Sierra to Options, I started working on the tile. There was a lot of cutting, nipping, and dry fitting to do. The nipping took the longest. I think I spent almost an hour alone on the tile that went under the toilet. I also had a lot of tiles that only needed 1/2 to 1 inch cut from the end, and because the rarely cut all the way, I had to nip those as well. By the end of the day, I had given my poor hands a couple of blisters, even though I had been wearing gloves. I was nipping the last pieces as Seth was putting the kids to bed. Once they were out of the way, I started mixing the thin mortar adhesive. Because I already had everything laid out, it didn't take too long to set the tiles, only a little over an hour, I think.

Friday, I was babysitting for a friend of mine who was out of town. Because I had her kids (the youngest only 1) all day, I didn't do too much. I just worked on preparing the baseboards for reattachment. One had to have a notch cut to fit the stop valve to the toilet. Another had to be recut to replace one that had split. I also repainted them while I was at it. Oh, and I finally found my camera. Then, after my friend's kids were picked up and mine were in bed, I grouted the floor. Took maybe half an hour. I was so pleased with myself.

Saturday. The day of caulk. I calked everything! There was the edge along the tub, the area under the heater, the spot under the toilet, and all along the walls and vanity. (We had previously had problems with the flood water dripping through those wall cracks into the basement, and I didn't want that to happen anymore.) Then, later in the day, I put back all of the baseboards.

Sunday, because I was tired of my kids using my bathroom, we put the toilet back. Yay!!!

What a week. But I must say, I'm quite proud of myself.